Nothing Less Than Normal
by PlushChrome
Summary: After crash-landing in a small town in America, the Doctor and Donna find themselves in need of a house while the TARDIS repairs itself. Always ready to investigate, of course they rent the only haunted one in town. Considered first in our headcanon GTTniverse, but is the most stand-alone-ish of all our Doctor Who stories to date.
1. Red Flags

_Author's note: Another installment in our GTTniverse, and I say another because even though this is technically the first in the series, it's the fifth to be published, and like, the twentieth to be written. Like always, it can be read on its own, but it is, indeed, a part of a headcanon series my sister and I are writing. Enjoy!_

* * *

They were running. Again.

Donna nearly groaned when they were off once more, having destroyed the hideous Serie alien's plans to destroy the beautiful four sunned planet Risha, they were now running from the Serie itself; racing toward the TARDIS and safety and leaving the capturing and punishing part of their usual job to the Risha police, who had ensured them that all Serie would be contained and given justice.

But for now, the Serie were free, free and wild and very, very, angry.

Plus, they had guns. And not only guns, they had the only super-sonic guns in the universe that could get through the TARDIS's defensives.

And so they ran. The Doctor in the lead, with his long coat flying out behind him and Donna following at his heels. Terror and elation gripped at Donna's heart, but she knew by now that they would get away. They always got away.

So that's why it didn't surprise her when the familiar blue of the TARDIS came into view. And that's why she wasn't the least bit amazed when the Doctor hurriedly put his key into the lock and flung open the doors.

And that's why she was so shocked when the gunshot sounded, and she and the Doctor both jumped to the floor of the TARDIS, and the laser blast went straight over where the Doctor had been standing and hit the controls of his beloved TARDIS, and the TARDIS engines sounded.

The Doctor stood and slammed the doors shut, closing off Donna's last view of the Serie, all pointing their shiny guns at the time machine. And then she was falling, right past the console.

She grabbed one of the railings that went around the controls as she heard a bang that she assumed was something, or the Doctor, hitting the console as they continued spinning, upside down, over again, rolling through time and space.

Donna kept hold of the railing, banging her head on the ground once she was righted again, but then turning upside down again. Always keeping her hold on the railing.

She heard the Doctor yell something, but the rushing in her ears tuned him out completely.

They kept spinning and jerking until finally, _finally_, the TARDIS groaned to a stop and the air was suddenly filled with smoke.

Donna opened her eyes, scared of what she might find, but they were the right way up this time. Standing hesitantly, Donna looked around and saw that the console was literally on fire, and fuming clouds were coming out of it.

It was also sparking and groaning, like it was in terrible pain. The Doctor stood next to it, holding onto the ledge of the console, with smoke surrounding him and his hair even more of a mess then usual, looking worried and stunned and altogether horror-struck at what might have happened to his TARDIS.

"Donna, get out!" He yelled, springing into action and rushing to the double doors that he had slammed shut just a minute ago.

Donna stumbled after him hurriedly, coughing because of the smoke and trying not to trip. The Doctor flung open the doors and ran out into the open.

"What happened?!" Donna demanded as she followed him out of the smoking machine. The Doctor slammed the doors shut again and then pointed the sonic screwdriver and waved it around them. "What happened?!"

"The TARDIS was shot." The Doctor said, lowering the screwdriver and inspecting the blue box warily. "It went into autopilot and took us to a safe place where she could recuperate."

Donna looked around them, noticing that they were in what appeared to be an abandoned restaurant of some sort. "Where is this?" She asked, turning back to the Doctor, who was stroking his ship with a distant expression on his face.

"Um," He looked around him and then breathed deeply. "I think it's around 2012, June, maybe. America by the looks of it, mountains and rainclouds. Washington? Idaho?"

"Well, how are we going to leave?" Donna asked, feeling somewhat annoyed.

"The TARDIS needs to repair herself." The Doctor said, biting his lip and glancing at Donna nervously. "We can't get in while she does it, or it will throw the whole thing off. Plus, the smoke is poisonous; it would kill us in an hour."

Donna took a small step away form the TARDIS, but then a more important thought struck her. "How long will that take, Doctor?" She asked him anxiously.

The Doctor rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he tried to find words. "Uh… Probably no more then… Two months?"

Donna felt her jaw drop at the news. The Doctor watched her wearily, as if he was waiting for an explosion.

"You mean we're stuck here, for two months, with absolutely no space travel, no ride, no money, and none of our belongings?" Donna asked, sounding very calm. Again, the Doctor hesitated to answer. But Donna knew what he was getting at.

They were stuck.

* * *

"It's not my fault!" The Doctor exclaimed as he chased after Donna, who had turned and walked out of the restaurant and then picked a random direction and continued walking away after hearing that they were practically stuck in America. The Doctor caught up to Donna and stuck his hands in his pockets as he walked along next to her.

Donna had a very clear flashback of him doing the exact same thing when she had first met him, only then she had been in a wedding dress.

"It isn't?" Donna exploded, the Doctor winced. "It isn't your fault? The one place in the universe with weapons that can hurt the TARDIS, and you say 'Oh, nothings gonna happen, Donna'. We find out that there's an alien plot to destroy the planet, _using those types of guns_, and you say 'Don't worry, Donna. It's just a little tribe, Donna. Piece of cake, Donna.' Well, now we're stuck here in this…"  
Donna looked around and inspected her surroundings. The small American town looked like the farthest thing from adventure there was. With little streets and little, mostly abandoned, buildings. "This dinky town!" She decided. The Doctor looked around himself too and then opened his mouth to talk, but Donna wasn't finished yet. "With no resources and no money!"

"Well," The Doctor hesitated, looking for something to say. "Well, at least I – I have the Sonic Screwdriver!" He pulled the sonic device from his coat pocket and smiled grandly. "And…" He dug around in his pocket for a while before pulling out the thin, wallet like, thing that got them into places. "Psychic paper!"

"What good will that do us?" Donna sighed, exasperated.

"It actually could help us a lot." The Doctor said excitedly, happy that he could offer Donna something. "You see, we can be registered new Americans, recently moved in from London with the Psychic Paper, and no one will question that that's who we are. We can rent apartments, or even get a house! We can fit into this tiny town while we wait for the TARDIS to recuperate! We can… We…" He suddenly seemed to deflate a bit. "We can be normal." He finished with a look of distaste.

"So, we're just supposed to sit around here waiting while the TARDIS repairs itself?" Donna scoffed. "Get a house and a job and fit in and just be normal?"

The Doctor hesitated for a second. "…It won't be all that bad, Donna." He insisted, rather uncertainly. "It's not like we're on Klom or something, its earth, we _can_ fit in here. It won't be that hard."

"Yeah, and you'll get a job and be a normal bloke like everyone else." Donna said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"Well, maybe not normal." The Doctor corrected himself. "Well, normal as in human. Well, not human for me, exactly. More like _pretend_ to be a fairly normal human. Well, when I say 'fairly normal'-"

"Oh, shut up." Donna snapped somewhat warily, cutting off the Doctor, who immediately stopped rambling like he was trying to stay on Donna's good side. "If we're gonna be stuck here, then we'd better get started." She said.

The Doctor grinned, but didn't say anything, which was a first. He just looked around, standing on his tiptoes to check his surroundings.

"Where are we going to find a house?" Donna asked, the Doctor glanced at her. "We… walk around." He said. "It seems like this a small town, not very populated either. Look around, Donna, there's no one any where."

Donna looked around the town and discovered that he was right, she couldn't see anyone. It seemed like it was around threeish, kids and dads returning from work should be all over the place, but as it was, Donna couldn't even see any cars.

"So there's probably some house available for us." The Doctor continued, sticking his hands in his pockets again and taking off in a random direction, walking slower then usual so that Donna could easily keep up.

Donna couldn't help but feel like the Doctor was trying to avoid annoying her in any way, because he was oddly silent as they walked, only talking very once in a while and often looking at Donna as if he was checking to make sure that nothing he did was upsetting her.

Eventually, they rounded a corner and nearly ran into someone. It was a young girl, possibly nine or ten years old, and standing a little way off from her was a boy who looked to be twelve. He rushed forward immediately.

"Sorry." The girl said in an apologetic tone of voice. "We didn't know anyone would be out around this time."

"Oh, that's fine." The Doctor said, smiling at the little girl brightly. "You were just walking, that's not a crime. I'm the Doctor, by the way, and this is Donna Noble."

"The Doctor?" The boy asked, inspecting the Doctor warily and putting a protective hand on the girls shoulder. "Doctor who?"

Donna elbowed her friend. He got the hint and decided not to go into the whole 'Just the Doctor' thing, as 'The Doctor' wasn't really a normal name.

"Smith." He said instead. "Dr. John Smith. Donna and I just moved in from Chiswick."

"Where's Chiswick?" The girl asked. This time, it was the boy who elbowed the girl. "It's in London, stupid." He told her, shaking his head. "London, _England._ You know, they had the Olympics this year."

"I don't care about sports." The girl sighed. "And how am I supposed to know what all is in England? All I know is London, and… and Britain."

The Doctor stifled a chuckle as the boy shook his head in wonder and the girl blinked, confused.

"So what are your names?" Donna interrupted, looking at the Doctor pointedly.

"I'm Yvonne Lucinda Trent." The girl introduced herself, smiling widely. "But everyone calls me Pepper, don't ask me why."

"It's because you're a fiery person." The boy said, like he explained this to her every day. "And also, you have a strange addiction to Dr. Pepper, which is why I sometimes call you _Dr._ Pepper instead of just Pepper."

"Oh, who cares about all that?" The girl said, sighing exaggeratedly. "The point is, you can call me Pepper. Everyone does."

"Right, Pepper, that's cute." The Doctor said as he nodded his head. "Though, I always kind of liked the name Piper. That's pretty close to Pepper, just one vowel off. Well, two letters, one of which is a vowel so…" He trailed off, realizing that he was rambling again. "Anyway, what's your name, then?" Turning to the boy.

"It's Colwyn Matthias." Colwyn Matthias said. "And I don't have a nickname. So, did you guys just move in?"

"We're looking for a place to stay, actually." Donna inputted.

"There's a house for sale right next to mine!" Pepper said excitedly, jumping up. "Wouldn't that be nice? If you two could move in next to me?"

"We don't even know them, Pepper." Colwyn said, looking at the Doctor cautiously. Pepper glared.

"They're friendly, Colwyn." She insisted. "Obviously, they need a place to stay, and why not stay in the brown house?"

"Because that house is haunted, duh!" Colwyn said.

"Wait just a minute," The Doctor interrupted. "What do you mean 'haunted'?"

"Well, everyone says so." Colwyn shrugged. "The last three people who moved in moved out within a week. There's always groaning and moaning at night, and I even saw someone in the window once." His eyes widened.

"Now, you seem like a smart boy, you believe this stuff?" The Doctor said reproachfully. Colwyn frowned indignantly.

"It's standard fact, Doctor." He insisted. "Everyone in town knows about it. There's a ghost in the house. The last person who tried to move in ran out screaming, and my brother's friend Henry spent the night in the house, and ended up in the hospital because of a heart attack!"

"Silly campfire stories." Pepper said, rolling her eyes at Colwyn. "Your brother's friend was just a coincidence, and the person that you saw in the window was probably some stupid teenage boy on a dare." She turned to the Doctor. "Plus, this guy doesn't seem to be the kind to run away screaming."

"Definitely not." The Doctor agreed, smiling. "Thanks for the warning, Colwyn, but I don't believe in ghosts."

"I'm not moving into a haunted house." Donna protested.

"Oh, now you're in on it?" The Doctor sighed, looking at Donna and making a face. "Really, it's probably nothing but folk tales."

"If the ghost kicks you out you can come and stay in my house." Pepper said jokingly. "Or into Colwyn's."

"My mom would never go for that." Colwyn protested. "Random British strangers just moved out of a haunted house. Yeah right."

"Your mom needs to loosen up." Pepper said thoughtfully. "Well then, if you want to see the house, it's right this way." She started walking back the way that she had come.

"We'd better check this out." The Doctor muttered quietly to Donna as Colwyn ran to catch up to his friend. "I may not believe in ghosts, but I know a strange story when I hear one."

"Right," Donna said, nodding. "Investigating and everything. And here I thought we were gonna be normal."

"Well, who wants to be normal when you can be chasing ghosts?" The Doctor said, smiling brightly.

"Doctor Smith!" Colwyn called from a little ways away. Furrowing his brow in confusion. "The house is this way!"

"Alright, Colwyn." The Doctor called back. "We're coming." He set off at a jog and Donna sighed before following him.

Eventually, they came to a medium sized brown house. It was very beautiful, with a stone walkway and wild trees and ivy climbing up the sides of it; a brown wood fence surrounded a backyard, and through the windows they could see that the house was fully furnished, with pictures and nick knacks and everything.

It looked like it had come from a story book, the only thing off was a 'For sale by owner' sign with a phone number attached.

"Here it is," Colwyn said, keeping his distance. "The brown house. Or you could call it the haunted house, or the death trap."

"Stop being so negative." Pepper said. "There's nothing wrong with this house, it's just a bit old, is all. And a tad dusty. But Mrs. Smith will probably take care of that when she and Dr. Smith move in."

"Oh, no," The Doctor said, starting to explain. "She's not my wife."

"We're not a couple." Donna inputted. "He's just a friend. I'm Donna Noble, not Mrs. Smith."

"That would never happen." The Doctor interrupted Donna. "Never ever," she agreed.

"Alright then," Pepper said, looking them up and down with her eyebrows raised. "I meant no offence. No need to get snappy."

"They weren't getting snappy, Pepper." Colwyn said in annoyance. "They were just being _regular_. I know it might be hard for you to understand, but there are people in this world who are normal. I'm one of them. They just told you that they weren't together. That's not a crime!"

"Of course it's not a crime," Pepper agreed. "Never said it was. Now let's get going. Mom's making spaghetti today."

"Fine," Colwyn sighed as he rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. Then he turned to Donna and the Doctor. "I'll be seeing you then, Dr. Smith, Miss Noble."

"Alright, see you." The Doctor agreed, saluting with his first two fingers.

Pepper smiled at them and then turned and ran to the house on the right of the brown one, jumping onto the porch and flinging the door open. Colwyn gave the Doctor a look like 'can you believe her?' and then took off after her.

"Nice kids." Donna remarked, smiling a bit.

"Right," The Doctor said. "Can I see your phone?" Donna held out her phone to him with confusion and he took it and dialed a number.

"Hello," The Doctor said into the phone. "Is this the owner of the brown house down…?" Here he paused and looked around to see what street they were on. "Down Carter Street?"

He paused for a second as the person on the other end answered, and then he grinned. "Oh, good." He said to the person. "You see, I was looking into purchasing it… Really? No money at all?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows at Donna, who looked impressed. "That's just brilliant, because you see, me and my friend just came in from… Right now? Do you have the paper work?"

"What happened?" Donna asked him, but he just gave her a look and continued on with his conversation.

"Oh, well in that case…" The Doctor started, but then he frowned. "Alright, I'll come down and… Of course, I… No, it's not… Can I finish…?" He turned to Donna and gestured to the phone disbelieving. "Yes, we'll come down," He said very quickly into the phone. "Thank you." He hung up the phone and handed it back to Donna.

"Well?" Donna asked him as she took the phone back. "What did the owner say?"

"She said we could have the house," The Doctor said, frowning a bit. "Completely free of cost. She said to come down right away and sign the papers."

"That's good isn't it?" Donna inquired. "That's a lot less work on our part, at least."

"Well, yes," The Doctor agreed. "But she was clearly agitated, and seemed almost scared. Wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise, she was so busy thanking me and begging me – actually _begging_ me to come down and take the house off of her hands."

"Then there's definitely something." Donna said, resigned. "And we must investigate it."

"Right you are, Donna." The Doctor smiled. "She said that she lived a little ways from here, near the bottom of that hill." Here he pointed to a hill just a few blocks away from where they were standing."

"What house do you think she lives in?" Donna asked him, looking at the small line of houses that were standing there.

"I think I know." The Doctor answered her, looking up a bit. Donna followed his gaze and saw a large, pretty looking white house on the hill. It had a winding road down to the town, but the road was covered in fallen tree branches and some of the concrete had been cracked and scattered by the tree roots. The house itself looked well looked after, with clean gleaming windows and clean cut lawns, but it seemed as though no one tried to make the journey up the long stairs in a while.

"It looks like a house in one of those murder mysteries," Donna said in surprise. "The ones where everyone gets trapped and they have to find out who killed who, with creepy butlers and hidden bodies."

"I bet that's where the owner lives." The Doctor said. He grinned at Donna and began making his way to the house. "Come on, then." He called behind him.

Donna sighed and turned to the brown house again, but the sight of a shadow moving inside the old place made Donna turn and hurry to the Doctor's side.

* * *

The owner's house was every bit as grand up close as it was from a ways away.

Everything seemed to gleam and shine, whether it was the diamond paned windows or the beautifully carved redwood door, complete with a golden knocker (14 karat, the Doctor had proclaimed after licking it), and a dark red mat on the floor.

The Doctor reached up and tapped the knocker three times.

The door opened slightly and a woman peeked out at them, but all they could see was her shadow and her dark half silhouette. The lights seemed to be off from the other side of the door.

"Hello?" The woman asked in a somewhat gravely voice. "Who is this? What do you want? I have a hair dryer!"

"No, we're friends." The Doctor said, smiling and holding up his hands to show her that he was unarmed. "Um, I'm Dr. John Smith. I just called you about your house on-"

"Oh, of course, I'm sorry." The woman said, stepping away from the door and swinging it open, revealing her startling appearance.

The first thing that the Doctor noticed was her hair, which was a bright, creamsicle orange color mixed with a few grey locks, and it was unordinarily frizzy and fell all the way down to her ankles.

The next thing that he noticed was her eyes, which were largish and a pretty grey color, but were so wide and demented looking that all attractiveness was lost. The woman was thin, but about as tall as Donna, and she was wearing a big paisley poncho and a pair of jeans with huge holes in the knees. She was completely barefoot and was also holding a large and lethal looking hair dryer like one would hold a baseball bat.

"Hi, there." The woman said. "You called me about the house."

"Yes, I did." The Doctor told her cautiously, his eyebrows raised at her bizarre attire and attitude. "Like I said on the phone, me and my friend just came in from England and we were hoping to-"

"I don't care," The woman interrupted. "If you're actually thinking of buying it I'll give you eight hundred dollars, but if you're just renting then I'll have to let you know that everyone who rents that house dies or goes insane."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her and then exchanged a glance with Donna. "When did this begin happening?"

"It's happened for as long as I've lived there," the owner said. "The previous owner, the man who sold it to me, said it started the summer of 62, he went on vacation and then when he got back, he started hearing voices."

"Fifty years to the date," The Doctor said absently before turning back to the woman. "What kind of voices, exactly? What were they saying? Why did he think they were ghosts?"

"They were just... voices," The woman said. "I didn't think anything of it, I thought he was... insane. But then I started hearing them too. Strange voices, echoes, as if something had happened, and I could still hear it happening."

"Right, and what were they saying?" Donna asked.

"Different things..." The woman said, looking away over their shoulders. "Just... phrases... certain names, over and over... cries for help... a little girl, laughing... I can still hear it sometimes... At first, I ignored it, but then I started hearing it other places, too... not just in the house."

"You mean, like, the names, the cries?" The Doctor asked, trying to understand.

"No, the laugh," The woman said. "I started hearing the laugh other places. There were four voices total. A man, a woman, a little girl, and a little boy."

"A whole family, then," The Doctor said. "Well, Miss...?"

He waited for the woman to introduce herself, but she just kept staring over their shoulder. The Doctor turned around and followed her gaze to the house. "Anyway," he said. "Can we have the house?"

"Of course," the woman said. "I have the papers all ready. You just have to sign here..."

She handed some papers to the Doctor, who wrote his name. "You just happened to have these ready because...?" he prompted.

"I've wanted to get rid of this house for years," she said as Donna also signed. "I've had these papers ready, just in case."

"Well, here you are, then," The Doctor said with a smile, handing the papers back to the woman, who glanced over them.

"Mr. Smith," she said. "The house is..." She trailed off and stared at the paper, her pale face suddenly ash grey.

"What, what is it?" The Doctor asked worriedly, as the woman's hands began to shake.

"You..." she whispered. "You... Go away! Go away, right now!"

"What's the matter, what's happened!?" The Doctor asked again.

The woman looked up and stared at Donna. "It was after you," she said. "It was after you! All this time... It's after you!"

"Excuse me, what!?" Donna demanded. "What's after me!?"

"Go away," The woman exclaimed, stepping back into her house and slamming the door shut behind her.

The Doctor and Donna stood there for a few moments, staring.

"...So we can have the house, then?" The Doctor asked the closed door.

After a few more moments of waiting, the Doctor sniffed and turned to Donna. "I'll take that as a yes," he said.


	2. Space Burgers

Cautiously, very cautiously, the Doctor opened the front door to the brown house and slowly, very slowly, stepped into the room, followed closely by Donna.

"Do you see anything?" She whispered.

"Not yet," he said. "It just looks... abandoned."

They walked the rest of the way into the front hall, and they looked around.

"The decor certainly leaves much to be desired," The Doctor said. "What, did they stop decorating in 1962 as well?"

"Looks it," Donna said. "That couch is hideous! Why would they make a pattern like that?"

"Oh, I don't know," The Doctor said optimistically. "Nice little scene, a river, a house, oh, look, there's a little church in the distance, see, there's the steeple. And oh, look at that," he said with a small smile. "There's a duck, climbing under that fence."

"Hideous," Donna repeated. "This house isn't haunted, it's just really, really ugly. It's enough to give me nightmares, that couch!"

"Well..." The Doctor said, still staring at the couch. "...Yeah..."

He walked over to the bookshelf in the corner and frowned. "Look at all this dust," he said, swiping his finger along the top. "I don't think this place has been touched in years."

"So we're now the proud owners of an ugly, dirty, dusty old haunted house." Donna said.

"Still not sure abut that whole 'Haunted' thing," The Doctor said absently. "Nothing's jumped out at us or anything. Yet." He looked around at the floral wall paper and the chandelier. "Still, it does look fairly normal. We should have a look around."

"Right," Donna nodded her head. "Looking around in a perpetually haunted house for ghosts. Standard stuff."

"Standard stuff," The Doctor agreed with a smile. "Nothing less then normal."

There was a knock on the door and the Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Who could that be?" He wondered aloud.

Donna shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe the landlady," She sighed. "Coming with more of her stories."

The Doctor frowned and opened the door to reveal Pepper, who was grinning widely and holding a large plate full of chocolate chip cookies. Colwyn stood behind her, looking around himself warily with his hands also full of cookies.

"Hello, Doctor Smith!" Pepper exclaimed brightly. "My mom made some cookies! She packed some up to send you when we told her you were moving in. She said to enjoy them while you still can."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" The Doctor asked.

"Nothing," Pepper said with a smile. "They're chocolate chip."

"Yes, I can see that," The Doctor said, taking the cookies out of her hands and nodding at Colwyn. "Looks pretty good. How was your day, Colwyn?"

"Fine," Colwyn told him. "Pepper dragged me here, but it doesn't look _too_ haunted."

"You see?" The Doctor said. "I told you this house was nothing to be scared of."

"We'll give you the grand tour!" Pepper said, bouncing into the house. "Colwyn, come on!"

"Pepper," Colwyn sighed. "That house is haunted! Stay out of it, alright?"

Pepper laughed loudly and grinned. "Oh, Colwyn," She said. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Come on. Ghosts? Really, Colwyn?"

"All I'm saying is we should be careful," he said. "Everyone agrees that this house is haunted. I don't want to take any chances. My dad says that every lie is based in a grain of truth. Even if it isn't ghosts, there is definitely _something _strange going on in this house, and I don't want any part in it."

"Wow, your dad seems like a very smart man," The Doctor said with a slight frown. "He's right, every lie is based in a grain of truth. But instead of hiding from the grain, don't you think you should try to find out what it is? Investigate a little?"

"You mean, separate the truth from the lies?" Colwyn said. "Find out for myself what really happens in this house, instead of leaving it be, like everyone says?"

"I'm sorry, but _how_ old are you, Colwyn?" The Doctor asked suddenly.

"I'm twelve, Mr. Smith," Colwyn said.

"Right," The Doctor said. "Twelve years old. That's amazing... how did you grasp the concept so quickly?" The Doctor was talking quietly now, as if he were talking to himself instead of Colwyn. "Not many people can do that..." He muttered. "Twelve years old, and wiser than most. What are you going to be...?"

"Doctor?" Donna said, interrupting his thoughts.

"Hmm?" He asked absently, looking at Donna. "Oh! Right. What do you say, Colwyn?" He asked, turning and grinning at Colwyn. "Want to investigate?"

"You do realize, if it isn't ghosts, it could be anything?" Colwyn asked.

The Doctor nodded.

"And if it's anything, we could get seriously hurt?" Colwyn continued.

"I'll protect you," The Doctor said. "From what I've seen, we're not dealing with anything super dangerous."

"But investigation isn't very safe," Colwyn said. "That's why we're supposed to _leave things be_."

"Oh," The Doctor groaned good naturedly. "Where's the fun in that?"

Colwyn hesitated. "...Alright," he said finally. "But just for a little while."

"Hooray!" Pepper said excitedly. "Let's go exploring!"

She ran off, and they all followed her.

After touring the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, and the downstairs bathroom (which was painted entirely in an awful shade of dull pink) they made their way to the second floor to tour the bedrooms.

There were four total, and they were all dusty and untouched.

Things didn't start to get interesting until they stepped into the fourth bedroom.

"And this," Pepper said grandly. "Is the Doctor's bedroom."

"Oh, I can't pick my own?" The Doctor asked with a small pout, looking around at the room.

"Oh, I didn't mean it was yours, Mr. Smith," Pepper said. "Although, you are a doctor, so that would be a coincidence. No, _everybody_ calls this the Doctor's room."

"What?" The Doctor said, staring at Pepper. "Why?"

"Because of the voices," Pepper said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "One of the ghosts is a doctor, too. And this is his room."

"Well, how can a ghost have a room?" The Doctor said. "He can't exactly sleep here or anything."

"Maybe this was his room when he was alive," Pepper said, shrugging her shoulders. "All I know is what everybody tells me. And they all agree that this is the doctor's room."

"These voices," The Doctor said, pulling his sonic screwdriver out and scanning the room. "About when do they start?"

Suddenly all the lights went off.

"Doctor..." Donna warned.

"It wasn't me," The Doctor defended in the darkness.

_GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!_

Pepper screamed and Colwyn most certainly did not scream, twelve year old boys didn't scream.

_GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!_

"DOCTOR!" Donna yelled. "What's happening!?"

_GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!_

"Uh, d-I don't know!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Whatever it is, it reacted to the sonic!"

"Then TURN IT OFF!" Donna yelled.

"Right," The Doctor said, and with a small click, the sonic turned off. The voice stopped yelling, and the lights came back on. The Doctor turned around and looked at Donna, who was looking back at him, just as bewildered and anxious as he was.

Pepper stared at the Doctor in fright, and Colwyn glanced between the Doctor and Donna, his hands over his mouth.

The four of them stood there for a few minutes, and then the Doctor sniffed, putting his hands in his pockets and standing up a bit straighter.

"Right," he said. "I say this room is off limits."

Then he turned to Pepper and Colwyn. "Want to stay over for supper?" He asked.

* * *

Supper was quiet. Very quiet.

Colwyn and Pepper, although hesitant at first, reluctantly agreed to stay, and Donna, just as reluctantly, set about making supper.

That is to say, she began trying to make supper, only to have to send the Doctor out to find a grocer and pick up food.

"What kind of food?" The Doctor had asked.

"Just food, spaceman," Donna sassed. "There's nothing. In this house! Nothing! I don't have anything, no meat, no vegetables, no spices, there's is no food in this house!"

The Doctor sighed. "Fine," he said. "Come along, kids, can you show me the way to the grocers?"

"Sure," Pepper said. "Anything to get out of this stupid house!"

"Wait," Donna said.

Pausing at the door, the Doctor turned. Donna just looked at him.

"...Yes?" He prompted.

"Nothing," Donna snapped. "Just... pick up some milk while you're there. Because _apparently_, we're going to _be_ here for _awhile_."

"Got it," The Doctor said, before closing the door and following Colwyn and Pepper as they walked through town.

* * *

Donna stood in the kitchen with her arms crossed, sighing in annoyance. What was she supposed to do while she was waiting for the Doctor?

"Nothing less than normal," Donna complained angrily. "Right. Who's the one who has to cook and clean? You gonna get a job spaceman? What am I supposed to do here in this house all alone?"

Going on a hunt for a cleaning closet, she found a duster and decided to make herself useful. She worked her way through the rooms downstairs and then moved upstairs, passing by the "Doctor's Room" and dusting the others. It was when she was in the last of the three rooms that she heard the voice.

_Donna... Donna... Donna..._

Donna froze. It was a man's voice, whispering her name. The voice was almost familiar, but she couldn't quite make it out. It just kept whispering her name.

_Donna... Donna... Donna..._

"Hello?" Donna called out. "Who's there?"

Everything was quiet, the voice, whoever and whatever it was, had stopped.

Donna turned around slowly, examining the room. It was just like all the other rooms, there was a large four-poster bed, a dresser, a vanity, a bed-side table with a lamp, and a bookcase in the corner.

Donna walked towards the bookcase and knelt down, reading the covers on some of the books. Nothing looked particularly interesting, and she stood back up with a sigh.

Suddenly, the lamp turned on.

Donna stood and stared. Taking a few steps closer, she looked around. There was nothing anywhere.

"Hello?" She called out again.

Nothing.

Reaching the lamp, Donna reached out and turned it off. She stood and watched it; after a few moments, it clicked on again.

"Alright," She whispered to herself. "Lamp turns on by itself."

She clicked it off again.

It clicked on.

She clicked it off again.

It clicked on.

She reached over determinedly. "I'm not going to give up," she said, clicking it off. "This is _my_ house now, and I don't share with strange, invisible alien ghosts!"

Apparently, it worked, because this time, the lamp stayed off.

"There now," Donna said. "That's better."

She turned around and gasped in fright; gazing at her through the mirror on the vanity was... her. She was staring at herself through the mirror, but... it wasn't her. The her in the mirror was pale and frightened-looking, her hair was messy and pulled back out of her face, and she had a cut on her cheek that stood out in the dark room from the mirror.

As Donna stared, the image faded, and the room in the mirror returned to the well-lit room it was now, and the Donna in the mirror turned into the Donna that was in the room as well.

"Alright then," Donna said loudly to the empty room. "I get it! You don't have to make threats! I'm going!"

Leaving the room and taking one last look back, Donna thought for sure that she saw a pale face, staring at her with wide, intense eyes.

But the face disappeared, and Donna made her way down to the living room to wait for the Doctor.

* * *

The Doctor walked back up to the front door, arms weighed down by several grocery bags. Colwyn and Pepper followed, also carrying groceries, and complaining about how sore their arms were. Although the town was fairly small and the grocers was within walking distance, it was still several blocks away, and the Doctor had to agree with the children that carrying heavy bags of groceries down several blocks was a little hard on the arms.

"Donna!" He called as they stepped in the front door and made their way to the kitchen. "I've been thinking. We should rent a car while we're here, you know..." He sniffed and glanced at Pepper and Colwyn. "Visiting."

"Yeah, that's great," Donna said absently. "Doctor, can I speak with you for a second?"

"Yeah, sure," The Doctor said, looking at Donna's face in concern. He followed her into what appeared to be a sitting room of sorts, and they both sat down.

"What happened?" The Doctor asked.

Donna hesitated. "I heard a voice," she said. "I was in one of the bedrooms, and I heard a voice, say my name, over and over again."

"It was saying your name?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah," Donna said. "Over and over again, it just kept saying 'Donna, Donna, Donna,' like a broken record or something. And then, the lamp started turning on by itself."

"The lamp!?" The Doctor asked in surprise. "By itself!?"

"Yeah," Donna said. "I had a fight with it, I guess you could say. I kept turning it off, and I told whatever it was that I was the new owner, so it better back off."

The Doctor grinned. "That's what I love about you, Donna Noble," he said. "So much sass."

"Oi," Donna warned. Then she softened up. "And then..." She said.

"Yes?" The Doctor asked gently. "What happened?"

"I saw my face in the mirror," Donna said. "Only, it was dark in the mirror, and I had a cut on my face. I looked scared."

"Now, that could be a problem," The Doctor said with a frown. "The ghost makes threats?"

"I guess so," Donna said. "Doctor, remember what the owner said?"

"You mean 'I have a hair dryer'?" The Doctor said with a smile.

"Oh, be serious," Donna said, rolling her eyes. "She said it was after me."

The Doctor sighed. "Yeah, I was just thinking about that," he said. "I suppose we should just be careful for the moment. Until we figure out what we're dealing with."

Donna sighed. "Great," she said. "We're stuck in the middle of small-town nowhere, with no ride out, and we have to live in a haunted house with a ghost that doesn't take sass."

"Now you got it," The Doctor said. "Now then. How about I go make some supper? I bought burgers, isn't that fun?"

"You cook!?" Donna asked, eyebrows raised.

"Oh, you know how it is," The Doctor said with a sniff, scratching the back of his head. "I've done some cooking here and there. Took a few lessons. Let me tell you, François Pierre de la Varenne had some pretty tasty stuff. I suggested he write it all down. I won _Chopped Celebrity cook-off_, once. It was funny, they thought I was some actor, from an old movie about a wizard or something."

"Oh, stop gloating," Donna said jokingly. "Go cook your burgers, Spaceman. I'll set the table."

The Doctor grinned, happy to have cheered her up somewhat. "There we go," he said. "I'll go get cooking then. Do you want cheese on yours?"

"Of course," Donna said. "And you?'

"Nah," The Doctor said. "Cheddar and cinnamon don't mix very well."


End file.
